Forgotten Embers

68. The Prisoner

Kallida slapped the pale faced man again, a quick correction for another smart remark from the sharp tongue of the prisoner, and Kelvin watched astonished as the man touched with his tongue the blood of his lip. There were mere seconds of silence as the thin lips of the man, cut and bleeding, curled tightly into a contemptible sneer.

'Five days of this... Kallida's been beating him ever since we got here. It's incredible to me, but he keeps making these snide comments anyway. The man can't seem to control his tongue. Well, no. He does control it. He controls it well and bitter.'

"Once more!" Kallida commanded. "Where is the Ambassador hiding?"

"Did it ever occur to you that if I had known I would have told you a few hundred blows ago? Or has all the magic corrupted your mind so far that you can no longer reason?" Garner answered coldly.

"You said you spoke with him!" Kallida contemptuously contended.

"Please!" Garner said, disgusted. "It wasn't a pleasant discussion for either of us."

"But he must have said something!" Kallida insisted, becoming increasingly annoyed.

"Look, Mister Inquisitor, I punched the man," Timothy spat back with bitter vitriol. "I wasn't exactly helping to plan his escape! In fact, I would have almost preferred that he didn't."

"Don't you care at all?" Kallida asked, intrigued. "He is your ambassador."

"No," Timothy laughed scornfully, shaking his head. "No. Not as far as I'm concerned. No, Eliezer Webber is a two bit snake oil salesman with a silver tongue and a sorcerer's touch, and my loathsome sister is like him. Well, then. They can both rot."

"You hate them..." Kallida considered, turning away from the man and placing his hand over his face with a sigh of frustration, "why?"

"Hate is a very strong word, Master Kallida," Garner replied with his usual exactness and cunning. "No, no. Hatred is a terrible wrong. What I practice is a willful neglect of our association. They've gone, and I've not, you see? Such is the nature of our relationship."

"You would prefer to remain here as a prisoner rather than join them?" Kallida asked, surely seeking to process the man's thinking.

"I would prefer to live my life free of their interference, of which this is surely a part," Garner replied dryly.

Kallida shot him a startled glance, turning quickly in his direction as he looked the man over with his dark hollowed eyes.

Timothy smirked. "Or why would I be here if not for their departure?" he asked sardonically.

Kelvin watched, and his eyes widened at Garner's remarkable freshness. He felt his stomach twist, beginning to turn, and he shuffled his feet, taking a step back, away from the two men and their conversation.

'I've never known a Kingsman to act so indignant,' he marveled, awkwardly appalled.

He heard the doors as they opened behind him, and there was a familiar clacking of boots against the marvel floor which followed, though this time somewhat less rhythmic than he had come to expect. He turned from the platform where he stood behind Kallida to face the man who entered, and his gaze was met with the sight of Alhor Zahaynei dragging a man behind him.

"Captain," Kallida stiffly acknowledged.

"Master Kallida," Zahaynei replied dryly. "I come bearing gifts. Here I have a man very much in need of your talents, Inquisitor."